From a merchant family in Prestonpans Gawen Drummond was born in 1659 in Prestonpans, East Lothian, the son of merchant Robert Drummond and Isabel Melvine. He was baptised on 19 June 1659, with George Makclaine and George Wallace acting as witnesses. By 1682, he was working as a merchant in Prestonpans. His elder brothers James and John were also merchants,
John Reid, the gard’ner John Reid, author of The Scots Gard’ner, was born in 1655 at Niddry Castle near Kirkliston in West Lothian, where both his father and grandfather were gardeners to the Seton family. He was apprenticed in 1668 to Andrew Wardlaw, a merchant in Edinburgh, but by the 1670s had turned decisively to horticulture. His early career was
Adam Hude was one of the Covenanters transported aboard the Henry and Francis in 1685. Born about 1661, he came from the Eastern Borders and worked as a weaver before his imprisonment. In March 1685 Hude was described by the authorities as a “disaffected person”. During the trial of the young Covenanter preacher James Renwick he was accused of dictating
David Toschach, 7th of Monzievaird, led a party of 25 emigrants to East New Jersey in 1685 and set up a fur trading post in New York. David Toschach [or Tosheoch] was born around 1645 in the parish of Monzievaird and Strowan, Perthshire into a minor landed family. He was the son of Andrew Tosheoch, 6th of Monzievaird, and Catherine
David Jamieson was born in March 1659 in Linlithgow, West Lothian, to David Jamie and Bessie Tod. He grew up in a Covenanter household and learnt the tailoring skills of his father’s business. The authorities accused him of being a member of the Covenanter army at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge on 22 June 1679. The following January, he was
Jean Moffat was born in about 1666 at Netherbarns just outside Galashiels, the daughter of James Moffat, tenant farmer and determined Covenanter. Jean was perhaps even stronger her beliefs and persistently refused to attend the services of the local minister. In consequence her father was fined 1,000 merks, for failing in his legal responsibility to ensure religious conformity by his family and
Andrew Paterson was a Covenanter who was transported in 1685 and made his way to Connecticut where he settled and had a family. Andrew Paterson [or Patterson] was born in 1659 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire. He was firm in his Covenanting beliefs and may have been in the Covenanter army at the Battle of Bothwell Bridge in 1679. In 1685, in
John Cockburn was a mason from the Borders who emigrated as an indentured servant and was one of the very first freemasons in Colonial America. He emigrated aboard the Shield of Stockton, leaving Leith on 3 July and landing at the Patuxent Rover, Delaware on 29 September. From there he and all the other passengers made their way to East
David Simson was an exiled Presbyterian minister and amongst the oldest Scots emigrants. David Simson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, was born around 1632 and served faithfully in parishes of Argyll for several decades before being exiled to East Jersey for his religious convictions. He began his ministry in 1656 at Killean and Kilchenzie parish in South Kintyre, later moving to
William Niven, a smith from Pollokshaws in Cathcart parish, Renfrewshire (now part of Glasgow), lived through some of the harshest years of the Covenanter persecutions in late 17th century Scotland. His religious nonconformity led to repeated imprisonments, torture, and eventual transportation across the Atlantic. In May 1678, Niven was arrested after attending an illegal conventicle and refused to name those